World Food Day

Reaching Zero Hunger by 2030

World Food Day is held annually on October 16. It is an international day commemorating the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1945.

World Food Day celebrates the global progress made toward zero hunger and highlights the world’s commitment to ending world hunger by 2030.

What is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations?

The FAO is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to achieving food security for all. A person is food secure when he or she has regular access to enough safe and nutritious food to remain healthy and lead an active life.

The FAO serves as a "knowledge network," collecting, analyzing, creating and sharing information about food and agriculture to aid sustainable development. It helps governments develop strategies and craft policies to:

• Help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition
• Make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable
• Reduce rural poverty
• Enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems
• Prevent and mitigate risks and crises that affect the livelihood of their citizens and help prepare and respond to disasters

Food and the Sustainable Development Goals

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 2015, also known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), is the most comprehensive and ambitious anti-poverty plan the world community has embarked upon.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are the global community’s efforts to transform the world, and "at least 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals contain indicators that are highly relevant for nutrition, reflecting nutrition’s central role in sustainable development."¹

SDG 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Without the establishment of sustainable agricultural production and food systems around the world, hunger and malnutrition will remain a problem, and achieving all of the SDGs can’t happen without ending hunger.

The success targets associated with SDG 2 include:

• End hunger by 2030 and ensure access by all people to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round
• End all forms of malnutrition by 2030
• Address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women older persons
• Achieve the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age by 2025
• Double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers by 2030
• Ensure sustainable food production systems by 2030, and implement resilient agricultural practices to increase production, maintain ecosystems and strengthen adaptability to changing environmental conditions
• Maintain the genetic diversity of plants and animals by 2020
• Increase investment in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks
• Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets
• Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives to help limit extreme food price volatility

A Roadmap to Zero Hunger

Four billion metric tons of food is produced each year, more than enough to feed every man, woman and child in the world. But one-third of the food that gets produced gets wasted.

Developed countries leave food on the plate, and developing countries leave food in the field or lose it in production.

Inequalities, conflicts, environmental conditions, and lack of knowledge and resources also take food from the mouths of the poorest two billion people in the world.

To reach Zero Hunger by 2030, the World Food Programme, Project Everyone and UNICEF created a high-level road map to help drive the world toward the specific success targets for SDG 2 and 3 (Global Health and Well-Being for All at All Ages).

• Put the poorest first by expanding social protection programs for the most vulnerable.
• Ensure everyone has access to affordable, nutritious food by improving rural infrastructure and creating more efficient supply chains.
• Increase the nutritional value of our global and local diets by helping farmers cultivate a sustainable variety of crops and educating consumers about the importance of eating a wide range of nutritious foods. Currently, rice, wheat, corn and soy make up 60 percent of the calories we consume.
• Reduce food waste. Get food to the plates of those who need it, not just those who can afford it.
• Prioritize the nutritional needs for nursing mothers and children in the first 1,000 days of life. "For approximately 1 million children in 2015, their first day of life was also their last." ²

Provide Food Security for Children in Poverty

Hunger and malnutrition exact an obvious price on health and make it harder for people to learn, work, provide for themselves, lead productive lives and contribute positively to society. The affect hunger and malnutrition has on health and productivity forms a barrier that serves to keep people mired in poverty.

Our Health and Nutrition initiatives help address the life threatening hunger needs of children in poverty, while also providing preventive care to support long-term health and wellness.

By giving to Compassion’s Health and Nutrition Fund, you will help provide supplemental food, vitamins and medical care to malnourished children and support to our therapeutic feeding and food stability initiatives. A donation today will also help safeguard children from illnesses that hamper early childhood development and threaten their lives.